Communications Decency Act (CDA), legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996 primarily in response to concerns about minors’ access to pornography via the Internet. In 1997 federal judges found that the indecency provisions abridged the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment to

intelligence: United Kingdom: Another service is Communications Intelligence, which specializes in electronic surveillance and cryptology. Its operations are conducted from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) at Cheltenham.

intelligence: Signals: Communications intelligence is gleaned from foreign communications that are intercepted by other than the intended recipients. Such intelligence can be of the greatest value to a nation’s fighting forces because it allows them to be privy to the strategies, weaknesses, and attitudes of the enemy.…

Communications satellite, Earth-orbiting system capable of receiving a signal (e.g., data, voice, TV) and relaying it back to the ground. Communications satellites have been a significant part of domestic and global communications since the 1970s. Typically they move in geosynchronous orbits about

Comsat, private corporation authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1962 to develop commercial communications satellite systems. It was officially incorporated in 1963, with 50 percent of the stock being sold to the public and the balance to private communications companies. Agencies from 17 other

United Kingdom: Broadcasting: …ITA’s successor today is the Office of Communications (Ofcom). Created by the Communications Act of 2003, Ofcom is responsible for regulating all commercial radio and television services, including satellite and cable, as well as all wired, wireless, and broadband telecommunications. Commercial television broadcasters include Channel Four and the ITV network.…

political philosophy: Habermas: …ethical analysis of communication (“communicative ethics”), and his own writings explicitly elaborate this point. According to this view, the aim of democratic politics should be to generate a conversation that leads to a rational consensus about the common good. Of course, the ideal by itself does not determine what…

foreign-language instruction: …imperatives spoken by the teacher; communicative language teaching, which emphasizes performative uses of language in ordinary social situations; and “desuggestopedia,” which involves removing by suggestion feelings or beliefs in students that limit their ability to learn.

Netscape Communications Corp.: Browser competition and the search for a business model: …it released a new product, Communicator, which combined the Navigator browser with workgroup-collaboration features designed to appeal to corporate customers. Another initiative was the creation of Netcenter, an information and commerce service built around its heavily trafficked Web site.

liberation theology: …build this church, they established communidades de base, (“base communities”), which were local Christian groups, composed of 10 to 30 members each, that both studied the Bible and attempted to meet their parishioners’ immediate needs for food, water, sewage disposal, and electricity. A great number of base communities, led mostly…

Communion of saints, in Christian theology, the fellowship of those united to Jesus Christ in Baptism; the phrase is first found in the 5th-century version of the Apostles’ Creed by Nicetas of Remesiana. The original Greek phrase has been translated both as a sharing of the benefits of membership

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Early training: …doctoral thesis, Sanctorum Communio (1930; The Communion of Saints), in which he tried to combine a sociological and a theological understanding of the church, and in Akt und Sein (1931; Act and Being), in which he traces the influence of transcendental philosophy and ontology—as well as Kantian and post-Kantian theories…

Justus of Ghent: …Italy, where he painted the Communion of the Apostles. This is the only absolutely authenticated picture by the master. It was painted at the bidding of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, who was introduced into the picture. Although this work is unmistakably Netherlandish, it shows that Justus had begun…

Eucharist, in Christianity, ritual commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples, at which (according to tradition) he gave them bread with the words, “This is my body,” and wine with the words, “This is my blood.” The story of the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus on the night before

Communism, political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society. Communism is thus a form of

Imeni Ismail Samani Peak, peak, western Pamirs, northeastern Tajikistan. Located in the Akademii Nauk Range, it rises to 24,590 feet (7,495 metres) and is the highest point in Tajikistan and in the range. It was first climbed by a Russian team in

Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin: Philosopher of revolution: In his theory of “anarchist communism,” according to which private property and unequal incomes would be replaced by the free distribution of goods and services, Kropotkin took a major step in the development of anarchist economic thought. For the principle of wages he substituted the principle of needs. Each…

Cominform, agency of international communism founded under Soviet auspices in 1947 and dissolved by Soviet initiative in 1956. The Communist Information Bureau was founded at Wilcza Góra, Pol., in September 1947, with nine members—the communist parties of the U.S.S.R., Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,

Third International, association of national communist parties founded in 1919. Though its stated purpose was the promotion of world revolution, the Comintern functioned chiefly as an organ of Soviet control over the international communist movement. The Comintern emerged from the three-way split

Communist Party of the United States of America: …influential Russian Federation, and the Communist Labor Party of America (CLP), the predominantly English-language group. They were established legally but were soon forced underground. Although the two parties feuded and various factions broke away to establish competing communist groups, the Communist International encouraged the unification of those organizations. In 1922…

The Communist Manifesto, (1848; “Manifesto of the Communist Party”), pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to serve as the platform of the Communist League. It became one of the principal programmatic statements of the European socialist and communist parties in the 19th and early 20th

Communist Party, Political party organized to facilitate the transition of society from capitalism through socialism to communism. Russia was the first country in which communists came to power (1917). In 1918 the Bolshevik party was renamed the All-Russian Communist Party; the name was taken to

Ukraine: Political process: …party in Ukraine was the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), which was a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Major legislation approved by the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet originated in, or was approved by, the CPU. A change to the Ukrainian constitution in October 1990 allowed nascent political…

Belarus: Political process: …supportive of Lukashenka are the Communist Party of Belarus (KPB), a successor of the monolithic ruling Communist Party of the Soviet era; the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus; and the Agrarian Party. Opposition parties are permitted, but they have had little electoral success. They include the Party of Communists of…

Chile: Government: The Communist Party of Chile (Partido Comunista de Chile; PCC), which was condemned under Pinochet’s rule, was reinstated by 1990. The centre-right Alliance for Chile (Alianza por Chile; AC) consists of the National Renovation (Renovación Nacional; RN) and the Independent Democratic Union (Unión Demócrata Independiente; UDI).…

Chinese Communist Party (CCP), political party of China. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the CCP has been in sole control of that country’s government. The CCP was founded as both a political party and a revolutionary movement in 1921 by revolutionaries such as Li

Communist Party of Cuba, Cuban communist party organized by Fidel Castro and others in 1965 but historically dating from communist activity begun in Cuba in 1923. Under the constitution of 1976 it became the only party permitted to function in Cuba, and in the revised constitution of 1992 it was

Czechoslovak history: The establishment of the republic: After the separation of the communists, the Social Democracy yielded primacy to the Czech Agrarians, or Republicans, as the latter party was officially renamed. The Agrarians were the backbone of government coalitions until the disruption of the republic during World War II; from its ranks came Antonín Švehla (prime minister,…

Friedrich Ebert: …the SPD to form the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). The leftists who had withdrawn from the SPD sought a social revolution, while Ebert and his party wanted to establish a German parliamentary democracy. Even in the midst of the war, the Catholic Centre Party, the Democratic Party (previously the…

Communist Party of India (CPI), national political party in India whose headquarters are in New Delhi. Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy became head of the CPI in 2012, following his election as general secretary. According to the CPI’s official history, the party was founded in late 1925 in Kanpur (now in

Communist Party of India: …the CPI and form the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M). The split weakened the CPI considerably at the national level. The CPI(M) surpassed the CPI’s seat total in the Lok Sabha in 1971 and consistently won two or more times as many seats as the CPI in subsequent…

Kyrgyzstan: Political process: During the Soviet period, the Communist Party of Kirgiziya (CPK), a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), determined the makeup of the government and dominated the political process. The CPK transformed itself into the People’s Democratic Party during the Soviet Union’s collapse and declined in influence…

Latvia: Political process: …Popular Front of Latvia, the Communist Party of Latvia (Latvijas Komunistu Partija; LKP), like its counterparts in the other republics of the Soviet Union, was the only source of political power, under the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The party was dominated by non-Latvians (mainly Russians and other Slavs)…

Malaysia: Political transformation: In 1948 the Communist Party of Malaya—a mostly Chinese movement formed in 1930 that had provided the backbone of the anti-Japanese resistance—went into the jungles and began a guerrilla insurgency to defeat the colonial government, sparking a 12-year period of unrest known as the Malayan Emergency. The communists…

Moldova: Political process: The Communist Party of Moldavia—until 1990 the only legal party—was dissolved in 1991 but was legalized as the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (Partidul Comuniștilor din Republica Moldova; PCRM) in 1994. Following independence a variety of political parties emerged, many of them later…

Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Nepalese Maoist political party that led a successful campaign to overthrow Nepal’s monarchy and replace it with a democratically elected government. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), or CPN (M), was founded by Pushpa Kamal Dahal—also known as

Nepal: Nepal, 1950–90: …205 seats), but the moderate Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)—CPN (UML)—with 69 seats, emerged as a strong opposition party. The two “Pancha” parties usually associated with the old system won only four seats. The elections were thus perceived to constitute a strong endorsement of the 1990 political changes, and…

Shining Path, Peruvian revolutionary organization that endorsed Maoism and employed guerrilla tactics and violent terrorism. The Shining Path was founded in 1970 in a multiple split in the Communist Party of Peru. It took its name from the maxim of the founder of Peru’s first communist party, José

Poland: The Second Republic: The illegal Communist Party, formed in 1918, was of marginal importance. The constitution of 1921 made the parliament supreme vis-à-vis the executive. The proportional system of universal suffrage (which included women) necessitated coalition cabinets, and, except at times of national crisis, the left and the right hardly…

Portugal: The Revolution of the Carnations: …leftist civilian allies in the Portuguese Communist Party and other Marxist-Leninist groups had won virtual control over the government in Lisbon, sections of the armed forces, and the media. The MFA itself was restructured and a Council of the Revolution installed with the support of six political parties. An election…

Romania: Political process: Before the 1989 revolution, the Communist Party of Romania was enshrined as the only legal political party and the leading force in Romanian society. The 1991 constitution replaced single-party rule with a democratic and pluralist system, but former communists have maintained prominence in politics through the formation of such parties…

South Africa: Political process: …ANC in 1959; and the South African Communist Party (SACP), a longtime ally of the ANC in the fight against apartheid. The SACP typically enters its candidates on the ANC’s lists, as do the South African National Civic Organization and the trade union federation COSATU. Smaller parties that have won…

Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Spanish political party founded in 1921 by dissident members of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). In April 1920 youth members of the PSOE split from the party, and the following year the PCE was formed when these former socialists united with the Spanish

Sweden: Political process: …Democratic Labour Party) and the Left Party (former Communist Party). The SAP is closely allied with the trade unions and was in power for a considerable part of the 20th century (1932–76 [except briefly in 1936] and 1982–91). At the end of the century and into the 21st century, power…

Thailand: The 1973 revolution and its aftermath: By mid-1977 the Communist Party of Thailand was beginning to mount an increasingly effective challenge to the military-backed government. Fearing increasing unrest, the military leaders—in yet another October coup—ousted the extreme right-wing government they had installed a year earlier and handed power over to Gen. Kriangsak Chomanand, who…

Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), Russian political party that opposes many of the democratic and economic reforms introduced in Russia after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation was officially established in 1993, but it is

Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the major political party of Russia and the Soviet Union from the Russian Revolution of October 1917 to 1991. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union arose from the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDWP). The Bolsheviks,

Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), left-wing political party in the United States that was, from its founding in 1919 until the latter part of the 1950s, one of the country’s most important leftist organizations. Its membership reached its peak of 85,000 in 1942, just as

Ukraine: Political process: …party in Ukraine was the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), which was a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Major legislation approved by the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet originated in, or was approved by, the CPU. A change to the Ukrainian constitution in October 1990 allowed nascent political…

Uzbekistan: Russian and Soviet rule: …authority was held by the Communist Party of Uzbekistan (CPUz), the republic’s branch of the central Communist Party. The core membership of the CPUz, and for decades its majority, consisted of Slavs and others from outside Central Asia who made all important local decisions except those reserved to the Soviet…

Slobodan Milošević: …Montenegrin parents and joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (from 1963 the League of Communists of Yugoslavia [LCY]) when he was 18 years old. He graduated from the University of Belgrade with a law degree in 1964 and began a career in business administration, eventually becoming head of the state-owned…

Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), left-wing political party in the United States that was, from its founding in 1919 until the latter part of the 1950s, one of the country’s most important leftist organizations. Its membership reached its peak of 85,000 in 1942, just as

Vladimir Voronin: …Moldavian Communist Party as the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), becoming its president a year later. In 2001 the PCRM won parliamentary elections with slightly more than 50 percent of the vote, ending a decade of rule by a reformist government. Elected president by parliament in…

Slobodan Milošević: …Montenegrin parents and joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (from 1963 the League of Communists of Yugoslavia [LCY]) when he was 18 years old. He graduated from the University of Belgrade with a law degree in 1964 and began a career in business administration, eventually becoming head of the state-owned…

Communitarianism, social and political philosophy that emphasizes the importance of community in the functioning of political life, in the analysis and evaluation of political institutions, and in understanding human identity and well-being. It arose in the 1980s as a critique of two prominent

history of the Low Countries: Town opposition to the prince: …the Low Countries became a communitas (sometimes called corporatio or universitas)—a community that was legally a corporate body, could enter into alliances and ratify them with its own seal, could sometimes even make commercial or military contracts with other towns, and could negotiate directly with the prince. Land within the…

history of the Low Countries: Social and economic structure: These were communitates, with their own servants and their own managements (dike reeves and heemraden) and empowered to take necessary measures to maintain the waterworks, administer justice, and issue proclamations. This included the levy of taxes for this purpose, under the exclusive control of the landholders, who…

Christianity: Human liberation: …alone also makes a perfect community possible. Such a community embraces God and the neighbour, in whom the image of God confronts human beings in the flesh. Community is fulfilled in the free service of love. Luther articulated the paradox of Christian freedom, which includes both love and service: “A…

Roman Catholicism: From the late Middle Ages to the Reformation: …papal relaxation and exemptions (the Conventuals)—were an open sore for 60 years, vexing the papacy and infecting the whole church. New expressions of lay piety and heresy challenged the authority of the church and its teachings, leaving the papacy itself vulnerable to disintegration.

Community, in biology, an interacting group of various species in a common location. For example, a forest of trees and undergrowth plants, inhabited by animals and rooted in soil containing bacteria and fungi, constitutes a biological community. A brief treatment of biological communities follows.

cable television: Commonly known as community antenna television (CATV), these cable systems use a “community antenna” to receive broadcast signals (often from communications satellites), which they then retransmit via cables to homes and establishments in the local area subscribing to the service. Subscribers pay a specified monthly service charge in…

Neighbourhood association, organized group whose aim is to address local issues, such as education reform, crime, or homelessness, to promote or prevent planned reforms and investments that are perceived as significantly influencing life in a neighbourhood or local community. Neighbourhood

Social settlement, neighbourhood social welfare agency. The main purpose of a settlement is the development and improvement of a neighbourhood or cluster of neighbourhoods. It differs from other social agencies in being concerned with neighbourhood life as a whole rather than with providing

Junior college, educational institution that provides two years of academic instruction beyond secondary school, as well as technical and vocational training to prepare graduates for careers. Public junior colleges are often called community colleges. Such colleges are in many ways an extension of

Community ecology, study of the organization and functioning of communities, which are assemblages of interacting populations of the species living within a particular area or habitat. As populations of species interact with one another, they form biological communities. The number of interacting

About once a week the three-toed sloth of Central and South America (Bradypus variegatus) descends from the trees, where it lives among the branches. For this slow-moving mammal, the journey is a dangerous and laborious undertaking, but it is one of great importance to members of the community

United Kingdom: The National Health Service: The Community Health Service has three functions: to provide preventive health services; to act as a liaison with local government, especially over matters of public health; and to cooperate with local government personal social service departments to enable health and personal care to be handled together…

Herd immunity, state in which a large proportion of a population is able to repel an infectious disease, thereby limiting the extent to which the disease can spread from person to person. Herd immunity can be conferred through natural immunity, previous exposure to the disease, or vaccination. An

foreign-language instruction: …silent prompts from the teacher; community language learning, in which the teacher acts as a facilitator for a self-directed group of language learners; total physical response, in which students respond physically to increasingly complex imperatives spoken by the teacher; communicative language teaching, which emphasizes performative uses of language in ordinary…

computer: Early computer enthusiasts: …1960s, started an organization called Community Memory to install computer terminals in storefronts. This movement was a sign of the times, an attempt by computer cognoscenti to empower the masses by giving ordinary individuals access to a public computer network.

e-democracy: Community networks:
Community networks first emerged during the 1970s but proliferated in many liberal democracies during the 1990s as the costs of software, computers, and networking equipment began to fall. Early networks, such as the Berkeley Community Memory Project near San Francisco and the Santa…

Community organizing, method of engaging and empowering people with the purpose of increasing the influence of groups historically underrepresented in policies and decision making that affect their lives. Community organizing is both a tactic to address specific problems and issues and a

palliative care: Community palliative care teams:
A community palliative care team may consist of specialist palliative care nurses who visit patients and families in their own homes or who are part of a larger team that delivers care to patients in facilities such as hospices or hospitals.…

police: Community policing:
Meanwhile, many police departments in the United States sought to increase their effectiveness by improving their relationships with the communities in which they worked. Community relations programs were established by many departments in the mid-20th century, and the “team policing” strategy was adopted…

Community property, legal treatment of the possessions of married people as belonging to both of them. Generally, all property acquired through the efforts of either spouse during the marriage is considered community property. The law treats this property like the assets of a business partnership.

Community psychology, the study of human behaviour in its multiple ecological, historical, cultural, and sociopolitical contexts. Community psychology is a shift away from the broader field of psychology’s internal, cognitive, and nuclear family emphases toward the incorporation of greater

redlining: …public loan data, while the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was intended to encourage banks and other financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate.

Charles Spurgeon Johnson: His research technique, called “community self-survey of race relations,” facilitated the gathering of sociological data and interpretations from both blacks and whites. After directing research for the National Urban League, New York City, he served as chairman of the social sciences department at Fisk (1928–47). After World War II…

prison: Other penalties: …instituted the use of the community service order, also known as a noncustodial penalty. Under such an arrangement the court is empowered to order anyone convicted of an offense that could be punished with imprisonment to perform a specified number of hours of unpaid work for the community, usually over…

Cesar Chavez: …organizer was provided by the Community Services Organization (CSO) in California, a creation of Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation. In 1958 Chavez became general director of the CSO, but he resigned four years later to found the NFWA. In September 1965 he began leading what became a five-year strike by…

shopping centre: The community shopping centre contains all of the above-mentioned services in addition to a medium-sized department store or variety store, which acts, with the supermarket, as a focus. Wearing apparel, appliance sales, and repair stores are also found here. This centre will normally serve 40,000 to…

Plaid Cymru: Policy and structure: …to this commitment was “community socialism,” a distinctively Welsh concept emphasizing a focus on local politics and encouraging a certain ideological distance from other political parties. Such an “isolationist” stance potentially hampered prospects of serious change in Welsh politics, but it did help to convey Plaid’s involvement in specifically…

Ecological succession, the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time. Two different types of succession—primary and secondary—have been distinguished. Primary succession occurs in essentially lifeless areas—regions in which the soil is incapable of sustaining life

prison: Other penalties: One alternative, community supervision, may take many different forms but essentially involves the suspension of a sentence subject to the condition that the offender agree to a specified period of supervision by a probation officer and comply with such other requirements set forth by the court. In…

civic theatre: …is sometimes used interchangeably with community theatre, meaning a noncommercial, locally based group. European countries such as France, Denmark, and Germany have a long tradition of both national and municipal support for local theatre. In Great Britain, city governments are empowered to levy a tax to support theatrical productions. In…

Manual of Discipline, one of the most important documents produced by the Essene community of Jews, who settled at Qumrān in the Judaean desert in the early 2nd century bc. They did so to remove themselves from what they considered a corrupt religion symbolized by the religiopolitical high p

Utopia, an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Hence utopian and utopianism are words used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic. The word first occurred in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, published in Latin as Libellus…de optimo

MRSA: Incidence and types: …known as community associated (CA-MRSA) and health care associated (HA-MRSA), both of which can be transmitted via skin contact. CA-MRSA affects healthy individuals—people who have not been hospitalized for a year or longer—and can cause soft-tissue infections, such as skin boils and abscesses, as well as severe pneumonia, sepsis…

Community-based rehabilitation, consumer-driven effort to restore independence and agency in persons with sensory, psychiatric, physical, or cognitive disabilities outside a medical or institutional context. Community-based rehabilitation may be supported by advocacy-based organizations or

poker: Community-card poker:
The most popular game of the modern era is Texas hold’em, which world champion poker player Doyle (“Texas Dolly”) Brunson once called the “Cadillac of poker games.” This is a studlike game in which players share five cards (community cards) dealt…

Commutation, in law, shortening of a term of punishment or lowering of the level of punishment. For example, a 10-year jail sentence may be commuted to 5 years, or a sentence of death may be commuted to life in prison. Often, after a person has served part of his sentence, the remainder is

indulgence: …upsurge was the phenomenon of commutation, through which any services, obligations, or goods could be converted into a corresponding monetary payment. Those eager to gain plenary indulgences, but unable to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, wondered whether they might perform an alternative good work or make an equivalent offering to…